SARASOTA — Drive a bit south and an exciting contemporary art experience awaits.

The Ringling, the Sarasota Art Museum and SPAACES gallery are vibrant museums showcasing some enthralling exhibits. Here’s what we saw, and how to plan your next trip to see it for yourself.

The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art

There’s always plenty to see at The Ringling, especially in the museum of art with its succession of galleries highlighting works of antiquity up to the most contemporary works.

Those worlds collide for the exhibition “Parade” by Los Angeles-based artist Shinique Smith, whose monumental fabric sculptures are placed through the museum’s grand galleries showcasing the Ringling’s vast collection of European art from the 15th to 19th centuries.

The exhibition was curated by Sarah Cartwright, the museum’s chief curator, and Ulla R. Searing, curator of collections.

Smith is classically trained in Western art, and growing up watching her mother design clothing gave her a mastery of drapery that echoes many of the paintings and sculptures in the rooms. The juxtaposition is thrilling.

The title “Parade” is perfect — not only are the sculptures on promenade, but so is the viewer as you move through the galleries. The works are so dimensional that the inclination is to move around them to see each angle. The experience becomes extra dynamic when you’ve passed into another gallery, then turn around to see them from another perspective.

Motion is innate in the works. Smith has a background in dance and calligraphy, an art that requires movement. To build the sculptures, she moves around them. Her hand is evident everywhere, in the painting on and braiding of the fabric.

The exhibition starts with a tribute to Black women with photos of her mother, her aunt and herself, alongside her drawings and small paintings and sculptures.

Many of the works address societal issues. The blue-hued “Stargazer” not only exposes the history of Indigo with the slave trade, but also imagines the journey of enslaved people to freedom on the Underground Railroad, finding their way by the stars in the sky.

The notion of excess is conveyed in totem-like sculptures that refer to the bales of clothing sent to third-world countries.

The exhibition ends on Smith’s tribute to Alice Ruth Clark Brown, the first African American woman to work as a dancer and aerialist with the Ringling Brothers Circus. “Blue Unity (Ode to a Black Star)” consists of sheer panels, some custom printed with designs of Smith’s work. They soar through the ceiling in the gallery that boats the highest ceilings in the museum.

It’s accompanied by a sound installation of Smith’s breath work, a fitting way to cap off the exhibit that is so full of humanity.

“Shinique Smith: Parade” remains on view through Jan. 5, 2025. $5-$25. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily except on Thursdays when the museum is open until 8 p.m. and offers discounted admission after 5 p.m. Admission to the museum of art is free on Mondays. 5401 Bay Shore Road, Sarasota. 941-359-5700. ringling.org.

Sarasota Art Museum

The Sarasota Art Museum opened in 2019. It was conceived by a group of locals who wanted to see a museum of contemporary art in the city. Through a partnership with Ringling College of Art and Design, the historic Sarasota High School was transformed into not only a museum, but also an education center, with studios for art-making classes.

The back side of the 1926 building, which was designed by architect M. Leo Elliot (who designed many buildings in Tampa Bay) has been updated to give a modern look. There’s a courtyard between it and Paul Rudolph’s 1959 Vocational Shops building, where the Bistro serves breakfast and lunch and art classes are held. Large sculptures dot the courtyard, where guests can also dine.

Senior curator Rangsook Yoon gave the Tampa Bay Times a tour of the museum and its powerful exhibition by acclaimed installation artist Judy Pfaff, “Picking up the Pieces.”

Pfaff created a site-specific installation in response to the way Hurricane Ian devastated Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel Island in 2022. There is a video of the storm and the resulting damage; many of those images are indelibly etched into Floridians’ minds.

Pfaff’s installation exactly captures the chaos of the damage: hulls of broken boats suspended from the ceiling with rigging; a jumble of patio chairs frozen in mid-hurtle; vinyl panels with the look of wood on the walls, an indication of the explosive displacement the storm caused.

Pfaff pays homage to sea life and the way the boundaries between the land and ocean become crossed in a storm. Piles of debris litter the floor, filled with the odds and ends that wash up on lawns. An illuminated wall sculpture looks like a creature from the depths of the ocean floor.

But there is another side to the exhibition. It’s a decadent, colorful explosion reminiscent of another aspect of Florida life — sun-soaked and outrageously decadent, with otherworldly flora and fauna. The exhibition begins here, giving the effect that many Floridians are all too familiar with — the bright calm before and its almost chilling return after the storm.

“Picking Up the Pieces” remains on view through March 24. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. $15; admission is free the second Sunday of each month. 1001 S. Tamiami Trail. 941-309-4300. sarasotaartmuseum.org.

SPAACES

This nonprofit’s name is an acronym for Sarasota Project Aligning Artists Communities Exhibits Studios. It was founded by artist Marianne Chapel who, upon returning to Sarasota from traveling the world for three years, was inspired to open a contemporary gallery. She opened an eponymous gallery in 2017, which grew and evolved into SPAACES and became a foundation and nonprofit in 2020.

SPAACES’ mission is to “advance contemporary visual art and professional artists,” with a focus on supporting women artists. The organization is also designed to support artists financially and help their professional development.

The organization also grew physically over the years in a warehouse space in the Park East neighborhood to include affordable artist studios. Through the years, dozens of contemporary artists have exhibited there, including quite a few from north of the Skyway Bridge.

The latest is St. Petersburg-based artist Babs Reingold. Her solo show titled “Under My Skin” explores the issues that get under her skin — greed, environmental collapse and poverty — all of which are inextricably linked.

Reingold uses rust and tea to stain the canvases, making them sepia-toned, which gives the surfaces a quality that looks both antique and like actual skin. Although two-dimensional, she treats the works like sculptures, in some cases using embroidery techniques like intricate French knots or encaustic painting (with hot wax), making them assemblages.

Like Pfaff, Reingold was moved to include the impact of hurricanes in her work. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 revealed that people who didn’t have the means to evacuate died. Thinking about poverty, she reflected on a housing project in Cleveland she lived in as a teen that was built on an amusement park called Luna Park and created a series that includes imagery of a window and a ladder.

“Luna Window: Ladder No. 16″ sees a ladder made of silk organza stuffed with human hair (she gets it from salons) to represent humanity, with broken rungs and a tiny window that make escape impossible. A lifeless animal at the bottom is an insight into measuring humanity through our treatment of animals.

“Under My Skin” runs through March 16. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Thursday-Saturday. 2087 Princeton St., Sarasota. 941-552-8298. spaaces.art.